Adaptive cross-device event data synchronization

ABSTRACT

A device implementing adaptive, cross-device event data synchronization includes at least one processor to maintain a database on the device, the database storing event data items derived from user data items corresponding to user activity on the device or a second device. The at least one processor periodically transmits, to a server, first insertion records corresponding to new event data items generated at the device, the transmission periodicity based on a frequency at which the new event data items are generated. The at least one processor, upon detecting deletion of one user data item, deletes, from the database, one corresponding event data item, and immediately transmits, to the server for propagation to the second device, a first deletion record for deletion of one corresponding event data item at the second device, the first deletion record being transmitted along with any of the first insertion records awaiting transmission.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 62/514,752, entitled “CROSS-DEVICE EVENT DATASYNCHRONIZATION,” filed Jun. 2, 2017, which is hereby incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety and made part of the present U.S.Utility Patent Application for all purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present description relates generally to data synchronization,including adaptive synchronization of event data across multipledevices.

BACKGROUND

Devices such as laptops, mobile phones, computers, mobile media devicesand watches can include applications for accessing and interacting withcontent. A user can switch between the devices and the applications toaccess and interact with the content.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Certain features of the subject technology are set forth in the appendedclaims. However, for purpose of explanation, several embodiments of thesubject technology are set forth in the following figures.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment for adaptive,cross-device event data synchronization in accordance with one or moreimplementations.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example electronic device that may be used in anadaptive, cross-device event data synchronization system in accordancewith one or more implementations.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example architecture of an adaptive, cross-deviceevent synchronization system that may be implemented by an electronicdevice in accordance with one or more implementations.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example event data item in accordance with one ormore implementations.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process for propagatingevent data item insertion/deletion records to other electronic devicesin accordance with one or more implementations.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process for coordinatingreception of event data item insertion/deletion records from one or moreother electronic devices in accordance with one or more implementations.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example electronic system with which aspects ofthe subject technology may be implemented in accordance with one or moreimplementations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description set forth below is intended as a description ofvarious configurations of the subject technology and is not intended torepresent the only configurations in which the subject technology can bepracticed. The appended drawings are incorporated herein and constitutea part of the detailed description. The detailed description includesspecific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understandingof the subject technology. However, the subject technology is notlimited to the specific details set forth herein and can be practicedusing one or more other implementations. In one or more implementations,structures and components are shown in block diagram form in order toavoid obscuring the concepts of the subject technology.

A user may utilize multiple electronic devices on a daily basis, such asa tablet, a phone, a smartwatch, a home computer, a work computer, andthe like. A user profile may be generated and stored at each of theindividual electronic devices based on the user's activity on each ofthe individual electronic devices. The user profile stored on anelectronic device may be, and/or may be derived from, an event databasethat stores event data items that correspond to the user's activity onthe electronic device. The user profile may be used by each individualelectronic device to personalize the user's subsequent activity on theelectronic device, such as by providing the user with relevantinformation, providing the user with keyword/query suggestions, and thelike.

Since the user profile is generated based on user activity on theelectronic device, if the user deletes all or part of their activitydata on a given electronic device, the portions of the user profilederived from the deleted activity data are also deleted, such thatremnants of the deleted activity data do not remain stored on theelectronic device. Furthermore, the user profiles may only be storedlocally on the individual electronic devices and may not be propagatedand/or aggregated at a server, in order to preserve the user's privacy.However, by only storing the user profiles on the individual electronicdevices on which the corresponding user activity occurred, the user doesnot receive the benefit of having their prior activity on one electronicdevice enhance their subsequent activity on another electronic device.

In the subject adaptive, cross-device event data synchronization system,a transport mechanism is provided for synchronizing user profiles acrossmultiple electronic devices without aggregating the user profiles on aserver. In this manner, the user's privacy is maintained while the useris provided the benefit of having their prior activity on any of theirelectronic devices used to enhance their subsequent activity across allof their electronic devices. Furthermore, if the user deletes all orpart of their activity data on any of their electronic devices, thecorresponding deletions from the user profile are immediately propagatedto all of the user's electronic devices, such that remnants of thedeleted activity data do not remain stored on any of the user'selectronic devices.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment 100 for adaptive,cross-device event data synchronization in accordance with one or moreimplementations. Not all of the depicted components may be used in allimplementations, however, and one or more implementations may includeadditional or different components than those shown in the figure.Variations in the arrangement and type of the components may be madewithout departing from the spirit or scope of the claims as set forthherein. Additional components, different components, or fewer componentsmay be provided.

The network environment 100 includes electronic devices 102, 104 and 106(hereinafter 102-106), and a server 110. The network 108 maycommunicatively (directly or indirectly) couple, for example, any two ormore of the electronic devices 102-106 and/or the server 110. In one ormore implementations, the network 108 may be an interconnected networkof devices that may include, or may be communicatively coupled to, theInternet. For explanatory purposes, the network environment 100 isillustrated in FIG. 1 as including electronic devices 102-106 and aserver 110; however, the network environment 100 may include any numberof electronic devices and any number of servers.

Each of electronic devices 102-106 may be, for example, a portablecomputing device such as a laptop computer, a smartphone, a peripheraldevice (e.g., a digital camera, headphones), a tablet device, a wearabledevice such as a watch, a band, and the like, or any other appropriatedevice that includes, for example, one or more wireless interfaces, suchas WLAN radios, cellular radios, Bluetooth radios, Zigbee radios, nearfield communication (NFC) radios, and/or other wireless radios. In FIG.1, by way of example, the electronic device 102 is depicted as a laptopcomputer, the electronic device 104 is depicted as a smartphone, and theelectronic device 106 is depicted as a watch. Each of electronic devices102-106 may be, and/or may include all or part of, the electronic devicediscussed below with respect to FIG. 2, and/or the electronic systemdiscussed below with respect to FIG. 7.

The server 110 may be, and/or may include all or part of the electronicsystem discussed below with respect to FIG. 7. The server 110 mayinclude one or more servers (e.g., a cloud of servers and/or a cloudinfrastructure) that facilitate adaptively synchronizing event dataacross multiple devices, e.g., across electronic devices 102-106. Forexample, a user of the electronic device 102 may access and interactwith data related to a topic or entity using one or more applicationsrunning on the electronic device 102. This user interaction can be usedto generate event data for synchronizing with the electronic devices 104and 106.

In this regard, a topic may be a data item that exists in a structureddata source, such as a data item that has an entry in an encyclopedia oran online encyclopedia, e.g., Wikipedia. For example, the topic can bethe name of a sports team, a musician, a song, or the like.

On the other hand, an entity may relate to one or more concepts, but maybe more generic and less restrictive than a topic for identifying aconcept (e.g., a noun, place or thing). While there may be some overlapbetween entities and topics, entities are not mapped to any encyclopediaentries. For example, a sports team can correspond to both an entity anda topic, e.g., mapped to an entry in an online encyclopedia, whereas thename of a user's pet may correspond to an entity but not a topic, sincethe name of the user's pet is not mapped to an entry of an onlineencyclopedia.

For example, the user may search for the topic of a particular sportsteam, using a browser application running on the electronic device 102.The user may further bookmark (or save as a “favorite”) a news articleabout that sports team on a news application running on the electronicdevice 102. The electronic device 102 can generate one or more eventdata items corresponding to the user interactions of: opening thebrowser application, searching for the particular sports team, openingthe news applications, and/or bookmarking the news article about thesports team. An example event data item is discussed further below withrespect to FIG. 4. The electronic device 102 can store the generatedevent data items in an event database, which is a local database thatstores data describing the user's interactions with the electronicdevice 102. An example software architecture for locally monitoring useractivity and generating corresponding event data items is discussedfurther below with respect to FIG. 3.

Further, the electronic device 102 can generate and transmit insertionrecords corresponding to the event data items to the server 110, forpropagation to the electronic devices 104 and 106, such that the user'sactivity on the electronic device 102 is propagated to the electronicdevices 104 and 106. When the server 110 receives the insertion records,the server 110 is configured to immediately push the insertion recordsto the electronic devices 104 and 106. In one or more implementations,the server 110 may also temporarily cache the insertion records for aperiod of time, such as one hour, one day, one month, or any period oftime.

In another example, the user may later clear browser history related tothe sports team, and remove the bookmark (or “favorite”) articleregarding the sports team. The electronic device 102 detects that theuser has deleted data from which one or more event data items weregenerated, and the electronic device 102 responsively deletes the one ormore event data items from the event database. Further, the electronicdevice 102 transmits a deletion record corresponding to the one or moreevent data items to the server 110, for propagation to the electronicdevices 104 and 106.

When the server 110 receives the deletion record, the server 110 isconfigured to immediately push the deletion record to the electronicdevices 104 and 106. The electronic devices 104 and 106 receive thedeletion record and immediately delete the corresponding one or moredata items from their respective event databases. In this manner, eventdata corresponding to the deletion of content on the electronic device102 is adaptively synchronized across the electronic devices 104 and106, via server 110. An example process for propagating event data iteminsertion/deletion records from the electronic device 102 to the otherelectronic devices 104 and 106 is discussed further below with respectto FIG. 5.

Similarly, the electronic device 102 may receive insertion and/ordeletion records from one or more of the other electronic devices 104,106 via the server 110. The electronic device 102 may insert theinsertion records into its event database and the electronic device 102may implement the deletion records by deleting the identified event dataitems identified therein from the event database. The electronic device102 may also implement a record verification mechanism such that theelectronic device 102 does not miss deletion records generated by any ofthe other electronic devices 104 and 106. If the electronic device 102determines that one or more deletion records from one or more of theother electronic devices 104 and 106 were missed, the electronic device102 may purge the event database and rebuild the event database based onthe records that are temporarily cached at the server 110.

In this manner, the subject system provides for maintaining userprivacy, by synchronizing event data items corresponding to useractivity across the electronic devices 102-106, without aggregating userprofile data on the server 110. Furthermore, the subject systemimplements a failsafe, such that when a user deletes any activity dataon any one of the electronic devices 102-106, remnants of that data willnot remain on any of the electronic devices 102-106, thus furtherimproving the maintenance of privacy of the user's data across all ofthe user's devices. An example process of coordinating reception ofevent data item insertion/deletion records by the electronic device 102from one or more of the other electronic devices 104 and 106 isdiscussed further below with respect to FIG. 6.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example electronic device 102 that may be used inan adaptive, cross-device event data synchronization system inaccordance with one or more implementations. For example, electronicdevice 102 can correspond to any of the electronic devices 102-106 fromFIG. 1. Not all of the depicted components may be used in allimplementations, however, and one or more implementations may includeadditional or different components than those shown in the figure.Variations in the arrangement and type of the components may be madewithout departing from the spirit or scope of the claims as set forthherein. Additional components, different components, or fewer componentsmay be provided.

The electronic device 102 may include a host processor 202, a memory204, and a communication interface 206. The host processor 202 mayinclude suitable logic, circuitry, and/or code that enable processingdata and/or controlling operations of the electronic device 102. In thisregard, the host processor 202 may be enabled to provide control signalsto various other components of the electronic device 102. The hostprocessor 202 may also control transfers of data between variousportions of the electronic device 102. Additionally, the host processor202 may enable implementation of an operating system or otherwiseexecute code to manage operations of the electronic device 102. In thesubject system, the host processor 202 may implement the softwarearchitecture for adaptive, cross-device event synchronization that isdiscussed further below with respect to FIG. 3.

The memory 204 may include suitable logic, circuitry, and/or code thatenable storage of various types of information such as received data,generated data, code, and/or configuration information. The memory 204may include, for example, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory(ROM), flash, and/or magnetic storage. In one or more implementations,the memory 204 may store an event database that stores event data itemsgenerated from user activity on the electronic device 102 as well asevent data items generated from user activity on the other electronicdevices 104 and 106.

The communication interface 206 may include suitable logic, circuitry,and/or code that enables wired or wireless communication, such asbetween any of the electronic devices 102-106 and server 110 over thenetwork 108. The communication interface 206 may include, for example,one or more of a Bluetooth communication interface, an NFC interface, aZigbee communication interface, a WLAN communication interface, a USBcommunication interface, or generally any communication interface. Thecommunication interface 206 may be used to receive event data iteminsertion/deletion records from the other electronic devices 104 and 106via the server 110 and to transmit event data item insertion/deletionrecords to the other electronic devices 104 and 106 via the server 110.

In one or more implementations, one or more of the host processor 202,the memory 204, the communication interface 206, and/or one or moreportions thereof, may be implemented in software (e.g., subroutines andcode), may be implemented in hardware (e.g., an Application SpecificIntegrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), aProgrammable Logic Device (PLD), a controller, a state machine, gatedlogic, discrete hardware components, or any other suitable devices)and/or a combination of both.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example architecture 300 of an adaptive,cross-device event synchronization system that may be implemented by anelectronic device 102 in accordance with one or more implementations.Not all of the depicted components may be used in all implementations,however, and one or more implementations may include additional ordifferent components than those shown in the figure. Variations in thearrangement and type of the components may be made without departingfrom the spirit or scope of the claims as set forth herein. Additionalcomponents, different components, or fewer components may be provided.

For example, the architecture 300 can be implemented by one or moresoftware modules running on any of the electronic devices 102-106 fromFIG. 1. For explanatory purposes, in FIG. 3, the architecture 300 isprimarily described herein with reference to the electronic device 102.The architecture 300 is depicted as including a monitor module 302, acontext module 304, an event database 306 and a synchronize module 308.

The monitor module 302 may locally monitor user activity on theelectronic device 102, such as opening an application, closing anapplication, performing one or more actions within an application (e.g.,that relate to one or more entities or topics), and the like. Themonitor module 302 may facilitate in storing and maintaining event dataitems related to the monitored user activity in association with theevent database 306. The monitor module 302 may further facilitate inproviding data related to the monitored user activity to the contextmodule 304, so that the context module 304 can reflect the currentcontext of the electronic device 102.

By way of non-limiting examples, the applications that are monitored bythe monitor module 302 may include a web browser, a news application, asocial networking application, an email application, a messengerapplication, a music player application, a video player application, aphoto application, or any other type of application for accessing orinteracting with content (e.g., that corresponds to a topic and/orentity). In another example, types of user interaction within theapplications may include opening content, viewing content, endorsing(e.g., “liking”) content, opposing (e.g., “disliking”) content, sharingcontent, commenting on content, reviewing content, or deleting content.In addition, users can interact with the applications for different timedurations and/or at different times of the day.

The monitor module 302 may be configured to determine when monitoreduser activity is sufficient to generate an event data item, based on,for example, one or more factors or predefined rules for generating theevent data items. For example, one or more of launching an application,clicking on a link within the application to access content relating toa topic and/or entity, or an interaction with such content may bepredefined as sufficient for generating event data items. The monitormodule 302 is further configured to generate event data items based onsuch predefined, sufficient user interaction, and to update the contextmodule 304 and the event database 306 accordingly.

For example, the user may search the topic of a particular sports teamusing a browser application running on the electronic device, and mayfurther bookmark a news article about that sports team on a newsapplication running on the electronic device 102. The monitor module 302may update the context module 304 based on this user activity (as isdiscussed further below), and the monitor module 302 may generate one ormore event data items for updating the event database 306.

In another example, the user may later clear browser history related tothe sports team topic, and remove the bookmark (or “favorite”) articleregarding the sports team. In order to determine that remnants of thedeleted data do not remain on the electronic device 102, the monitormodule 302 may treat these events as signals for deleting the associatedevent data item(s). The monitor module 302 may update the context module304 based on this user activity, and may delete the corresponding eventdata items in the event database 306.

The context module 304 may store and provide data representing thecurrent state of events on the electronic device 102. The context module304 may receive data (e.g., in real-time) from the monitor module 302and/or the operating system of the electronic device 102, in order torepresent the current state of the device.

In one or more implementations, the context module 304 may indicate whatapplication(s) are currently running on the electronic device 102 andthe duration that each application has been running, the type of contentbeing accessed on each application and the duration of accessing thecontent, and the user activity with respect to the accessed content. Asnoted above, this information can be provided, on a continuous basis, tothe context module from the monitor module 302. In addition, the contextmodule 304 may indicate (e.g., using the operating system) the currenttime, place and weather associated with the electronic device 102. Forexample, the above information accessible from the context module 304can be used to determine the music the user the currently listening to,the application the user is currently using, the content the user iscurrently viewing or otherwise interacting with, the location of theuser, and the current weather.

The event database 306 is a database that is locally stored on theelectronic device 102. The event database 306 may store and update theevent data items derived from user activity on the electronic device102, as well as the event data items received via insertion records fromone or more of the other electronic devices 104 and 106. Thus, in one ormore implementations, the event data items correspond to user activitythat spans multiple electronic devices, e.g., user activity on multipleof the electronic devices 102-106.

In this regard, the event database 306 for the electronic device 102stores and updates event data items generated at the electronic device102, as well as any event data items generated at the electronic devices104 and 106 and received via insertion and/or deletion records. Inaddition, the event database 306 stored on the electronic device 104stores and updates event data items generated at the electronic device104, as well as any event data items generated at the electronic devices102 and 106. Further, the event database 306 stored on the electronicdevice 106 stores and updates event data items generated at theelectronic device 106, as well as any event data items generated at theelectronic devices 102 and 104.

For example, if a user interacted with data related to a particulartopic (e.g., a sports team) on the electronic device 102, the monitormodule 302 updates the event database 306 by inserting a correspondingevent data item into the event database 306. If the user laterinteracted with data related to the same topic the electronic devices104 and/or 106, the event database 306 at the electronic device 102 mayfurther be updated with corresponding additional event data itemsreceived via insertion records from the electronic devices 104 and/or106. These insertion records may be received at electronic device 102via the server 110, in response to the electronic devices 104 and/or 106transmitting insertion records for the event data items to the server110, for propagation to electronic device 102.

The synchronize module 308 coordinates the adaptive synchronizing ofevent data items across the electronic devices 102-106. Adaptivesynchronization of event data items may be implemented by one or moredifferent types of records, such as insertion records, deletion records,and the like.

With respect to insertion records, the electronic device 102periodically transmits (e.g., via communication interface 206), to theserver 110 for propagation to the electronic devices 104 and 106,insertion records corresponding to new event data items generated at theelectronic device 102. In one or more implementations, the periodicityof the transmitting is based at least in part on a frequency at whichnew event data items are generated. For example, the synchronize module308 may wait for a threshold number of new event data items (e.g., 10events) to be generated at the electronic device 102, before generatingand transmitting insertion records for the new data event items toserver 110 for propagation to the electronic devices 104 and 106. Inthis manner, if the user activity on the electronic device 102, e.g.,with respect to topics and/or entities, is high (e.g., severalinteractions per minute over an extended time period), then thetransmission of corresponding insertion records with event data itemswill be more frequent. Conversely, if the user activity is low (e.g.,very few interactions over the extended time period), then thetransmission of corresponding insertion records will be less frequent.In one or more implementations, the user may only have one activeelectronic device. For example, the user may use the electronic device102, but not have used the electronic devices 104 and 106 for at least athreshold amount of time. In this case, the frequency may be furtheradjusted for the electronic device 102 (e.g., the frequency oftransmitting insertion records may be decreased).

With respect to deletion records, the electronic device 102 immediatelytransmits (e.g., via communication interface 206), to the server 110 forpropagation to the electronic devices 104 and 106, a deletion record forcausing deletion of the one of the event data items at the electronicdevices 104 and 106. The deletion record is transmitted along with anyof the insertion records awaiting transmission, and the transmitting isperformed immediately irrespective of the periodicity of the periodictransmitting of the insertion records. In one or more implementations,the number of deletion records for immediate transmission by theelectronic device 102 to the server 110 is subject to a maximum cap, forexample, a threshold number of deletion records per given time period(e.g., day). In a case where the number of deletion records exceeds themaximum cap, the electronic device 102 may transmit subsequent deletionrecords to the server 110 on a periodic basis and/or once a thresholdnumber of subsequent deletion records have been aggregated.

Thus, event data items may be adaptively synchronized across theelectronic devices 102-106, without user profile data being aggregatedon the server 110. With respect to deleting activity data, no remnantsof the deleted user activity data will remain on the electronic devices102-106, thus further improving the maintenance of privacy of the user'sdata.

In one or more implementations, the electronic device 102 may use one ormore of the following adaptive parameters with respect to cross-deviceevent data synchronization: a “SyncDisabled” parameter that represents aglobal toggle to enable or disable cross-device event synchronization,thereby respectively enabling or disabling the transmission of insertionand/or deletion records from the electronic device 102 to the server110; an “AssetThresholdInBytes” parameter that represents a maximum sizefor a record (e.g., an insertion record) such that a record exceedingthe maximum size is stored on the server 110 as a blob instead of as arecord; a “FirstSyncPeriodInDays” parameter that represents how muchdata is synchronized on the first synchronization; a “MinSyncsPerDay”parameter that represents the minimum number of daily synchronizations;a “MaxSyncsPerDay” parameter that represents the maximum number of dailysynchronizations; a “NumChangesTriggeringSync” parameter that representshow many changes are required to trigger a record synchronization; a“PolicyDownloadIntervalInDays” parameter that represents how oftensynchronization policies should be downloaded by the electronic device102 from a server storing the policies; a“SingleDeviceSyncIntervalInDays” parameter that represents how often tosynchronize if a user has only one active electronic device; a“StreamNamesWithAdditionsTriggeringSync” parameter that represents thestreams that are tracked or monitored for insertions; a“StreamNamesWithDeletionsTriggeringSync” parameter that represents thestreams that are tracked for deletions; and a “SyncTimeoutInSeconds”parameter that represents how long (e.g., a threshold duration of time)the electronic device 102 should wait on the server 110 to performoperations before timing out.

The above-listed parameters are examples of parameters that may be usedfor cross-device event data synchronization. Other parameter namesand/or fields may be substituted for those described above, andadditional and/or alternate parameters may be used with respect tosynchronization.

In one or more implementations, the event database 306 is stored in thememory 204 and locally stores event data items derived from user dataitems corresponding to user activity on the electronic device 102. Inone or more implementations, each of the monitor module 302, the contextmodule 304 and the synchronize module 308 are implemented as softwareinstructions, stored in the memory 204, which when executed by the hostprocessor 202, cause the host processor 202 to perform particularfunction(s).

In one or more implementations, one or more of the monitor module 302,the context module 304 and the synchronize module 308 may be implementedin software (e.g., subroutines and code) and/or hardware (e.g., anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field ProgrammableGate Array (FPGA), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), a controller, astate machine, gated logic, discrete hardware components, or any othersuitable devices) and/or a combination of both. In one or moreimplementations, some or all of the depicted components may sharehardware and/or circuitry, and/or one or more of the depicted componentsmay utilize dedicated hardware and/or circuitry. Additional features andfunctions of these modules according to various aspects of the subjecttechnology are further described in the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example event data item 400 in a system forsynchronizing event data in accordance with one or more implementations.Not all of the depicted components may be used in all implementations,however, and one or more implementations may include additional ordifferent components than those shown in the figure. Variations in thearrangement and type of the components may be made without departingfrom the spirit or scope of the claims as set forth herein. Additionalcomponents, different components, or fewer components may be provided.

The event data item 400 may be generated by one or more of theelectronic devices 102-106. For example, the event data item 400 may bederived from user activity with respect to one more applications and/orthe operating system of the electronic device 102, such as a useraccessing and interacting with data related to a topic and/or entity,while using one or more applications and/or the operating system. Theevent data item includes source data 402 and event data 412.

The source data 402 is used to identify the source of the event dataitem 400. In one or more implementations, source data 402 includes auser identifier (ID) 404, a device ID 406, an item ID 408 and a group ID410. Event data items 400 can belong to the same source, or can belongto different sources.

The user ID 404 uniquely identifies the user from among other users,while being the same for the user across different electronic devices(e.g., 102-106). For example, the user may be associated with a useraccount that is accessible and/or shared among the different electronicdevices 102-106, with the user ID corresponding to the user account. Forexample, one or more of the electronic devices 102-106 may beregistered, e.g., via the server 110, to the user account. By way ofnon-limiting example, a default user ID can be associated with anelectronic device 102, or the user ID can be based on ausername/password entered when logging onto an electronic device 102.

In one or more implementations, the device ID 406 within source data 402uniquely identifies an electronic device (e.g., the electronic device102) from among other devices (e.g., the electronic devices 104 and106). Thus, each of the electronic devices 102-106 associated with theuser (and/or the user account) can be differentiated from one another.In conjunction with the user ID 404, it is possible to distinguishbetween different users of the same electronic device. For example, if aprimary user and a secondary user share the same electronic device 102,corresponding event data items 400 would store different user IDs 404,while sharing the same device ID 406.

In one or more implementations, item ID 408 within source data 402uniquely identifies a particular data source for topic or event contentwhich the user accesses or interacts with. For example, given aparticular topic (e.g., a sports team), the item ID 408 may be a uniqueidentifier of any of the following: a webpage if the user is viewingcontent of the topic via a web browser, a news article if the user isreading on the topic within a news application, a song related to thetopic (e.g., theme song) if the user is listening to music within amusic application, or a video related to the topic if the user is usinga video player application.

In one or more implementations, the group ID 410 within source data 402uniquely identifies a group of items to which an item ID 408 belongs.For example, if the item ID 408 identifies a specific webpage, the groupID 410 may identify a favorites folder or bookmarks folder whichincludes that specific webpage. In another example, if the item ID 408identifies a specific article within a news application, the group ID410 may identify a favorites folder or bookmarks folder which includesthat specific article. In one or more implementations, the group ID 410may not be used and may be set to “nil” for an event data item 400(e.g., if a specific webpage is not within a favorites folder or abookmarks folder).

The event data 412 of event data item 400 includes data corresponding tothe user interaction, such as with an application, with topic and/orentity content, and the like. The event data 412 may include a starttime 414, an end time 416, a value 418 and metadata 420.

In one or more implementations, the start time 414 within the event data412 stores the date and time at which the event corresponding to theevent data item 400 started. For example, user activity is related toaccessing an application (such as to view content associated with anentity and/or topic), the start time 414 stores the date and time atwhich the user began such interaction (e.g., the time at which the userlaunched the application, and/or the time at which the user clicked on alink to direct to the user data related to the topic). The end time 416within the event data 412 stores the date and time the user interactionassociated with the event data item 400 ended. For example, if a userfinished interacting with user data related to a topic on anapplication, the end time 416 stores the date and time at which the userended such interaction (e.g., the time at which the user closed theapplication, or the time at which the user clicked on a different linkto direct to the user data related to other content).

As noted above, the server 110 stores a temporary copy of insertion anddeletion records before pushing the records to other electronic devices.The insertion records and deletion records are specific to a device, andinclude the date/time for the record. In one or more implementations,the date/time can be correspond to the start time 414 and end time 416values of the event data item for insertion records, or can be aseparately stored date/time for deletion records. Moreover, theinsertion and deletion records each include unique per-device sequencenumbers as is described further below with reference to FIG. 6.

The server 110 may be configured to implement a time-to-live (TTL) foreach of the insertion and deletion records stored on the server 110. Forexample, the server 110 may implement a 30-day TTL for the records.Values other than 30 days can be used for the TTL, and the TTL value canbe adjusted as needed (e.g., adjusted by the user or by a systemadministrator). Based on the date/time for each record stored on theserver 110, records can be deleted once the TTL threshold is exceeded.Thus, the records will be temporarily stored on the server 110 no longerthan the preset TTL threshold.

In one or more implementations, the value 418 within event data 412identifies a topic or entity corresponding to the user activity. Asnoted above, an event data item 400 may correspond to a topic and/or anentity. As discussed above, a topic may be mapped to an entry of anonline encyclopedia. In this instance, the value 418 may store a valueof an index or identifier that maps to an entry of an onlineencyclopedia.

For example, the topic can be a sports team, musician, or song. In thismanner, event data items can be created when a user interacts withcontent on a device.

The value 418 may also correspond to an entity. An entity may relate toone or more concepts, but may be more generic and less restrictive thana topic for identifying a concept (e.g., a noun, place or thing). Whilethere may be some overlap between entities and topics, entities are notmapped to any encyclopedia entries. For example, a sports team cancorrespond to both an entity and a topic, e.g., mapped to an entry in anonline encyclopedia, whereas the name of a user's pet may correspond toan entity but not a topic, since the name of the user's pet is notmapped to an entry of an online encyclopedia.

Alternatively, or in addition, the value 418 may indicate an applicationor an operating system function on the electronic device 102-106. Forexample, the value 418 may store an identifier that identifies theapplication or operating system function. Thus, in addition to creatingand storing event data items based on a user interacting with a topicand/or entity (e.g., corresponding to content presented within anapplication), event data items can be created and stored when the usersimply launches an application, uses an application, closes anapplication, or powers on/off the electronic device 102-106, withoutotherwise interacting with content within the application.

In one or more implementations, the topic and/or entities may correspondto interests of the user. As noted above, the synchronizing of eventdata items may be used to personalize/enhance subsequent userexperiences across all of the user's electronic devices 102-106,irrespective of which of the electronic devices 102-106 the event dataitems were originally generated on. By analyzing the event data items,it is possible to determine interests (e.g., from topics and/orentities) of the user and to surface those interests within applicationsrunning on the devices. For example, a news article on a topic may besurfaced within a news application, or keyboard suggestions may beadapted to suggest interest(s) of the user. For example, the contextmodule 304 can accessed to determine a current time, place, weather, orstate associated with the user, content for topics and/or entitiesinteresting to the user can be provided to the user based on theinformation provided by the context module 304.

In one or more implementations, the metadata 420 within event data 412is data which further describes the event data item 400. For example themetadata provides additional description of the topic or entity of value418. The metadata 420 can be structured or unstructured. Structuredmetadata corresponds to predefined metadata key pairings which areknown, expected, or anticipated. Examples of structured data include anapplication launch reason, a device location, or a device motion state.

On the other hand, unstructured data can correspond to metadata keypairings which are unknown or otherwise unaccounted for. For example, anumber of scenes (e.g., “scene 1” corresponding to morning, “scene 2”corresponding to afternoon, and “scene 3” corresponding to night) can bedefined by the user based on time of day, and stored within the metadata420 to further describe a topic or entity of the value 418, or tootherwise describe the event data item 400.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process 500 forpropagating event data item insertion/deletion records to otherelectronic devices in accordance with one or more implementations. Forexplanatory purposes, the process 500 is primarily described herein withreference to the electronic device 102 of FIG. 1. However, the process500 is not limited to the electronic device 102 of FIG. 1, and one ormore blocks (or operations) of the process 500 may be performed by oneor more other components of the electronic device 102 and/or by othersuitable devices (e.g., electronic device 104 or 106). Further forexplanatory purposes, the blocks of the process 500 are described hereinas occurring in serial, or linearly. However, multiple blocks of theprocess 500 may occur in parallel. In addition, the blocks of theprocess 500 need not be performed in the order shown and/or one or moreblocks of the process 500 need not be performed and/or can be replacedby other operations.

The electronic device 102, via monitor module 302, continuously monitorsuser activity for events (502). As noted above, the monitor module 302is configured to determine when user activity is sufficient to generatean event data item based on predefined rules for generating the eventdata items. For example, one or more of launching of an application,clicking on a link within the application to access content, theinteraction with such content, or deleting information corresponding tosuch an interaction (e.g., deleting a bookmark) may be predefined assufficient for generating event data items. On the other hand, useractivity which is not suggestive of interaction with content may not besufficient for generating an event data item.

Once a sufficient event is detected (504), the monitor module 302handles the deletion of event data item(s) and the insertion of eventdata item(s) in different manners. For example, an insertion event maybe detected when a user interacts with data related to a particulartopic or event on the electronic device 102. If the sufficient event isan insertion event (the “No” branch of 506), the event database 306 isupdated by generating an event data item 400 and inserting the generatedevent data item 400 into the event database 306 (508).

In one or more implementations, the generated event data item 400 mayinclude the source data 402 and/or the event data 412, each havingcorresponding data fields. These fields may be used to for identifyingthe event data item(s) (e.g., for subsequent deletion, for surfacinginterests, or for otherwise personalizing applications for a user). Theuser ID 404, device ID 406, and the value 418 can be used to identifyall event data items associated with a specific user of the electronicdevice 102 for a given topic or entity (via the value 418). Thegenerated event data item 400 is inserted into the event database 306for the electronic device 102 (508).

In addition to inserting the event data item(s) into the event database306, the inserted event data item 400 is periodically propagated to theother electronic devices of the user (e.g., electronic devices 104 and106). In this regard, the synchronize module 308 coordinates thesynchronization of the inserted event data item 400, e.g., in the formof an insertion record, across the multiple electronic devices 102-106of the user.

As described above, the periodicity of the propagation is based at leastin part on a frequency at which new event data items are generated. Thesynchronize module 308 calculates a current frequency based on theaddition of the new event data item (510), and determines if thecalculated frequency has reached a preset threshold frequency (512). Inone or more implementations, the synchronize module 308 waits for athreshold number of new event data items (e.g., 10 events) to begenerated at the electronic device 102, before generating andtransmitting insertion records for the new data event items to server110 for propagation to the electronic devices 104 and 106.

Thus, if the electronic device 102 determines that the threshold has notbeen reached (512), the synchronize module 308 adds the generated eventdata item to a list of pending event data items for subsequenttransmission to the server 110 (514), and updates the frequency based onthe new event data item 400. The process returns to monitoring useractivity for events (502). If the electronic device 102 determines thatthe threshold has been reached (512), the synchronize module 308generates a batch of insertion records for each of the event data itemsin the list of pending data items, clears the pending list of event dataitems (520), and resets the frequency.

Each of the insertion records may include data for the fields of thesource data 402 and the fields of the event data 412 of the respectiveevent data item. As noted above, these fields may be used foridentifying the event data item(s) (e.g., for subsequent deletion, forsurfacing interests, or for personalizing the user experience). Further,the user ID 404, device ID 406, and the value 418 may later be used toidentify all event data items associated with a specific user of theelectronic device 102 for a given topic or entity (via the value 418).

In addition, the electronic device 102 appends a unique sequence numberto each of the insertion records. In one or more implementations, theunique sequence number may be generated by a sequence numbering systemused solely by the electronic device 102 (e.g., not shared with theother electronic devices 104 and 106) exclusively for insertion records.The other electronic devices 104 and 106 may implement their ownsequence numbering systems to uniquely identify the insertion recordsthat they create, e.g., in conjunction with the device ID 406. Theunique sequence numbers are described in more detail below with respectto FIG. 6.

After generating the batch of insertion records, the synchronize module308 transmits (e.g., via communication interface 206) the batch ofinsertion records to the server 110 for propagation to the electronicdevices 104 and 106, so that the corresponding event data items caninserted into the respective event databases 306 locally stored on eachof the electronic devices 104 and 106 (522). Thus, event data items maybe synchronized across the electronic devices 102-106, without userprofile data being aggregated on the server 110, thereby improving themaintenance of privacy of the user's data.

With respect to deletion, a deletion event may be detected, for example,when the user clears a browser history related to a particular topic orevent, and/or removes a bookmark (or “favorite”) article regarding theparticular topic or event. The monitor module 302 may identify such useractivity as a signal to delete the associated event data item(s). If adeletion event is determined (a “Yes” at 506), the event database 306 ofthe electronic device 102 is updated by deleting a corresponding eventdata item(s) from the event database 306 (516).

The event data item(s) being deleted from the event database 306 can beidentified based on the source data 402 and event data 412 fields of thedata items. For example, the user ID 404 and device ID 406 of the sourcedata 402, and the value 418 of the event data 412 can be used toidentify all event data items associated with a specific user of theelectronic device 102 for a given topic or entity (via the value 418).Thus, the value 418 can be matched to the topic or entity associatedwith the user data being deleted to identify the event data items fordeletion. The identified event data items can be locally deleted fromthe event database 306 of the electronic device 102 (516).

In addition to deleting the event data item(s) from the event database306, the deletion is immediately propagated to the other electronicdevices of the user (e.g., electronic devices 104 and 106). In thisregard, the synchronize module 308 coordinates the synchronization of adeletion record corresponding to the deleted event data items across themultiple electronic devices 104 and 106 of the user. In doing so, thesynchronize module 308 generates a deletion record for the correspondingevent data item(s) (518). For example, each of the electronic devices104 and 106 store a respective event database 306, and the generateddeletion record can indicate the user ID 404, device ID 406, and thevalue 418 on a per-device basis.

The electronic device 102 may append a unique sequence number to thedeletion record. In one or more implementations, the unique sequencenumber may be generated by a sequence numbering system used solely bythe electronic device 102 (e.g., not shared with the electronic devices104 and 106) exclusively for deletion records. The other electronicdevices 104 and 106 may implement their own sequence numbering systemsto uniquely identify the deletion records that they create, e.g., inconjunction with the device ID 406. The unique sequence numbers aredescribed in more detail below with respect to FIG. 6.

The synchronize module 308 immediately transmits (e.g., viacommunication interface 206), to the server 110 for propagation to theelectronic devices 104 and 106, the generated deletion record forcausing deletion of the one of the event data items at the eventdatabases 306 of the electronic devices 104 and 106. In addition, thesynchronize module 308 generates a batch of insertion records for eachof the event data items in the list of pending data items awaitingtransmission (if any), and clears the pending list of event data items(520). The deletion record is transmitted along with the generated batchof insertion records (if any) to the server 110 (522), and the processreturns to monitoring user activity for events (502). Thus, when a userdeletes activity data on any one of the electronic devices 102-106, noremnants of that data will remain on any of the electronic devices102-106, further improving the maintenance of privacy of the user'sdata.

The transmitting is performed immediately irrespective of theperiodicity of the periodic transmitting of the insertion records. Withrespect to the batch of insertion records transmitted with the deletionrecord, the corresponding event data items can be inserted into therespective event databases 306 on each of the electronic devices 104 and106 as described above. Regarding the deletion record, once the deletionrecord is received at each of electronic devices 104 and 106, the userID 404, device ID 406, and the value 418 can be used to identify allevent data items associated with the of the electronic device 104 or 106for a given topic or entity (via the value 418). The identified eventdata items can be locally deleted from the event database 306 of theelectronic device 104 and 106 (516).

In one or more implementations, an event data item may be stored in theevent database 306 in association with the insertion sequence number ofthe insertion record that included the event data item. In thisinstance, the insertion sequence number in association with the deviceID 406 may be used in the deletion record to uniquely identify an eventdata item in the event database 306 for deletion.

In one or more implementations, a deletion event may not result inimmediately propagating a corresponding deletion record to the otherelectronic devices of the user (e.g., electronic devices 104 and 106).Rather, similar to insertion events, the electronic device 102 maygenerate and transmit delete records in batches. For example, once theevent data item(s) is deleted from the event database 306 locally storedon the electronic device 102 (516), the synchronize module 308 maycalculate a current frequency for deletion events based on the currentdeletion event, and determine if the calculated frequency has reached aconfigurable preset threshold. The synchronize module 308 may wait forthe threshold number of deletion events to occur if the threshold hasnot been reached. Once the threshold is reached, the electronic device102 may then generate a batch of delete records for deleting therespective event data items (e.g., similar to 518), generate a batch ofthe pending insertion records (e.g., similar to 520), and transmit thebatch of delete records and the batch of pending insertion records tothe server 110, for propagation to the electronic devices 104 and 106(e.g., similar to 522). The policy parameters for batching deletionevents may differ from those for batching insertion events, includingbut not limited to different preset threshold frequency values.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process 600 forcoordinating reception of event data item insertion/deletion recordsfrom one or more other electronic devices in accordance with one or moreimplementations. For explanatory purposes, the process 600 is primarilydescribed herein with reference to the electronic device 104 of FIG. 1.However, the process 600 is not limited to the electronic device 104 ofFIG. 1, and one or more blocks (or operations) of the process 600 may beperformed by one or more other components of the electronic device 104and/or by other suitable devices (e.g., electronic device 102 or 106).Further for explanatory purposes, the blocks of the process 600 aredescribed herein as occurring in serial, or linearly. However, multipleblocks of the process 600 may occur in parallel. In addition, the blocksof the process 600 need not be performed in the order shown and/or oneor more blocks of the process 600 need not be performed and/or can bereplaced by other operations.

The electronic device 104 receives insertion record(s) or a deletionrecord from the server 110 (602). For example, the insertion record(s)or deletion record may have been generated on the electronic device 102,and transmitted via the server 110 to the electronic device 104 (e.g.,using communication interface 206). As noted above, each insertionrecord generated by the electronic device 102 includes a unique sequencenumber (e.g., an insertion sequence number) generated from a set ofsequence numbers that is only used by the electronic device 102 and onlyfor insertion records. Similarly, each deletion record generated by theelectronic device 102 includes a unique sequence number (e.g., adeletion sequence number) generated from a set of sequence numbers thatis only used by the electronic device 102 and only for deletion records.

By associating unique sets of sequence numbers with insertion recordsversus the deletion records, where the sets of sequence numbers are alsounique across devices, it is possible for the synchronize module 308 ofthe electronic device 104 to detect whether incoming insertion recordsand/or deletion records received from server 110 are in proper sequencefor a particular device (e.g., the electronic device 102).

In one or more implementations, the electronic device 104 stores thecurrent insert and delete sequence numbers for each of the user's otherelectronic devices 102 and 106. For example, the electronic device 104may store the following values in memory 204:

[Electronic device 102; Insertion; Sequence number a]

[Electronic device 102; Deletion; Sequence number b]

[Electronic device 106; Insertion; Sequence number x]

[Electronic device 106; Deletion; Sequence number y]

If the record received from the electronic device 102 is an insertionrecord(s) (a “No” at 604), the electronic device 104 would update itsevent database 306 based on that event data item provided with theinsertion record(s) (606), and the electronic device 104 may incrementthe current insertion sequence number for the electronic device 102 thatis stored in the memory 204. Thus, event data items may be synchronizedacross the electronic devices (e.g., 102 and 104), without user profiledata being aggregated on the server 110, thereby improving themaintenance of privacy of the user's data.

In one or more implementations, if the received insertion record(s) isnot in sequence when compared to the current insertion sequence numberat the electronic device 104, this may signal that the event database306 stored on the electronic device 104 is out of synchronization withrespect to the event data items generated by the electronic device 102(e.g., an insertion record was missed due to a prior transmissionerror). For example, if the received record at the electronic device 104is the insertion record [Electronic device 102; Insertion; Sequencenumber a+2], then the sequence number is not in sequence, based on thecurrent insertion sequence number for the electronic device 102 that isstored in the memory 204 [Electronic device 102; Insertion; Sequencenumber a] (e.g., since a+1, rather than a+2, is sequentially after a).In this case, the electronic device 104 may update its event database306 to include the event data item that is missing (e.g., the event dataitem corresponding to sequence number a+1). For example, this missingevent data item may be retrieved from the temporary cache of insertionand deletion records stored on the server 110, and/or the missing eventdata item may be requested from the electronic device 102.

If the received record is a deletion record (a “Yes” at 604), theelectronic device 104 determines whether the deletion record is insequence (608). For example, the received record at the electronicdevice 104 may be a deletion record [Electronic device 102; Delete;Sequence number b+1], for which the sequence number is in sequence,based on the current deletion sequence number for the electronic device102 that is stored in the memory 204 [Electronic device 102; Delete;Sequence number b] (e.g., since b+1 is sequentially after b). Thus, theelectronic device 104 would update its event database 306 to delete theappropriate event data item indicated by the deletion record from theevent database 306 (606), and the electronic device 104 may incrementthe current deletion sequence number for the electronic device 102 thatis stored in the memory 204. Thus, when a user deletes activity data onone electronic device (e.g., 102), no remnants of that data will remainon that device or on the user's other electronic device(s) (e.g., 104),further improving the maintenance of privacy of the user's data.

If the deletion record is not in sequence (608) when compared to thedeletion sequence number at the electronic device 104, this may signalthat the event database 306 stored on the electronic device 104 is outof synchronization with respect to the event data items deleted byelectronic device 102 (e.g., a deletion record was missed due to a priortransmission error). In this case, the event data items corresponding tothe electronic device 102 are cleared from the event database 306 storedon the electronic device 104 (610).

In one or more implementations, the electronic device 104 will requestthe records for the event data items corresponding to electronic device102 that are being temporarily stored on the server 110. For example,the request can identify the electronic device 102, and request allrecords (e.g., insertion and deletion records with their correspondingsets of sequence numbers) as stored on server 110. The electronic device104 may delete the entirety of its event database 306, and may requestall of the records that are being locally stored on the server 110. Asnoted above, the server 110 temporarily caches insertion and deletionrecords for a given period of time.

In one of more implementations, the electronic device 104 can thenrebuild its event database 306, with respect to the event data items forthe electronic device 102, based on the received records. For example,the electronic device 104 iterates through the received records andapplies each insertion and/or deletion in sequence. The electronicdevice 104 can further reset the current sequence numbers, correspondingto event data items for the electronic device 102, based on thelast-applied insertion record and the last-applied deletion record. Inone or more implementations, the electronic device 104 may not rebuildthe event database 306 with respect to prior event data itemscorresponding to the electronic device 102, but may instead insert newevent data items corresponding to the electronic device 102 into theevent database 306 as they are received.

As described above, one aspect of the present technology is thegathering and use of data available from various sources to, forexample, improve the delivery to users of content that may be ofinterest to them. The present disclosure contemplates that in someinstances, this gathered data may include personal information data thatidentifies user activity on an electronic device with respect to aspecific person. Such personal information data can include, forexample, identification of user interests, a user ID, a device ID,demographic data, temporal-based data, location-based data, or otheridentifying information.

The present disclosure recognizes that the use of such personalinformation data, in the present technology, can be used to the benefitof users. For example, the personal information data can be used todeliver targeted content that is of greater interest to the user (e.g.,providing the user with relevant information, providing the user withkeyword/query suggestions, and the like). Accordingly, use of suchpersonal information data enables discrete control of the deliveredcontent. Further, other uses for personal information data that benefitthe user are also contemplated by the present disclosure.

The present disclosure further contemplates that the entitiesresponsible for the collection, analysis, disclosure, transfer, storage,or other use of such personal information data will comply withwell-established privacy policies and/or privacy practices. Inparticular, such entities should implement and consistently use privacypolicies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting orexceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining personalinformation data private and secure. For example, personal informationfrom users should be collected for legitimate and reasonable uses of theentity and not shared or sold outside of those legitimate uses. Further,such collection should occur only after receiving the informed consentof the users. Additionally, such entities would take any needed stepsfor safeguarding and securing access to such personal information dataand ensuring that others with access to the personal information dataadhere to their privacy policies and procedures. Further, such entitiescan subject themselves to evaluation by third parties to certify theiradherence to widely accepted privacy policies and practices. As isdescribed herein, the collected personal information is only stored onthe user's own devices, with the exception of temporarily caching somedata on a server for transport purposes.

Despite the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplatesembodiments in which users selectively block the use of, or access to,personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplatesthat hardware and/or software elements can be provided to prevent orblock access to such personal information data. For example, users canselect to not provide precise location information, but permit thetransfer of location zone information.

Therefore, although the present disclosure broadly covers use ofpersonal information data to implement one or more various disclosedembodiments, the present disclosure also contemplates that the variousembodiments can also be implemented without the need for accessing suchpersonal information data. That is, the various embodiments of thepresent technology are not rendered inoperable due to the lack of all ora portion of such personal information data. For example, content can beselected and delivered to users by inferring preferences based onnon-personal information data or a bare minimum amount of personalinformation, such as the content being requested by the deviceassociated with a user, other non-personal information, or publicallyavailable information.

FIG. 7 illustrates an electronic system 700 with which one or moreimplementations of the subject technology may be implemented. Theelectronic system 700 can be, and/or can be a part of, one or more ofthe electronic devices 102-106, and/or one or the server 110 shown inFIG. 1. The electronic system 700 may include various types of computerreadable media and interfaces for various other types of computerreadable media. The electronic system 700 includes a bus 708, one ormore processing unit(s) 712, a system memory 704 (and/or buffer), a ROM710, a permanent storage device 702, an input device interface 714, anoutput device interface 706, and one or more network interfaces 716, orsubsets and variations thereof.

The bus 708 collectively represents all system, peripheral, and chipsetbuses that communicatively connect the numerous internal devices of theelectronic system 700. In one or more implementations, the bus 708communicatively connects the one or more processing unit(s) 712 with theROM 710, the system memory 704, and the permanent storage device 702.From these various memory units, the one or more processing unit(s) 712retrieves instructions to execute and data to process in order toexecute the processes of the subject disclosure. The one or moreprocessing unit(s) 712 can be a single processor or a multi-coreprocessor in different implementations.

The ROM 710 stores static data and instructions that are needed by theone or more processing unit(s) 712 and other modules of the electronicsystem 700. The permanent storage device 702, on the other hand, may bea read-and-write memory device. The permanent storage device 702 may bea non-volatile memory unit that stores instructions and data even whenthe electronic system 700 is off. In one or more implementations, amass-storage device (such as a magnetic or optical disk and itscorresponding disk drive) may be used as the permanent storage device702.

In one or more implementations, a removable storage device (such as afloppy disk, flash drive, and its corresponding disk drive) may be usedas the permanent storage device 702. Like the permanent storage device702, the system memory 704 may be a read-and-write memory device.However, unlike the permanent storage device 702, the system memory 704may be a volatile read-and-write memory, such as random access memory.The system memory 704 may store any of the instructions and data thatone or more processing unit(s) 712 may need at runtime. In one or moreimplementations, the processes of the subject disclosure are stored inthe system memory 704, the permanent storage device 702, and/or the ROM710. From these various memory units, the one or more processing unit(s)712 retrieves instructions to execute and data to process in order toexecute the processes of one or more implementations.

The bus 708 also connects to the input and output device interfaces 714and 706. The input device interface 714 enables a user to communicateinformation and select commands to the electronic system 700. Inputdevices that may be used with the input device interface 714 mayinclude, for example, alphanumeric keyboards and pointing devices (alsocalled “cursor control devices”). The output device interface 706 mayenable, for example, the display of images generated by electronicsystem 700. Output devices that may be used with the output deviceinterface 706 may include, for example, printers and display devices,such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED)display, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, a flexibledisplay, a flat panel display, a solid state display, a projector, orany other device for outputting information. One or more implementationsmay include devices that function as both input and output devices, suchas a touchscreen. In these implementations, feedback provided to theuser can be any form of sensory feedback, such as visual feedback,auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input from the user can bereceived in any form, including acoustic, speech, or tactile input.

Finally, as shown in FIG. 7, the bus 708 also couples the electronicsystem 700 to one or more networks and/or to one or more network nodes,such as the electronic device 102 shown in FIG. 1, through the one ormore network interface(s) 716. In this manner, the electronic system 700can be a part of a network of computers (such as a LAN, a wide areanetwork (“WAN”), or an Intranet, or a network of networks, such as theInternet. Any or all components of the electronic system 700 can be usedin conjunction with the subject disclosure.

Implementations within the scope of the present disclosure can bepartially or entirely realized using a tangible computer-readablestorage medium (or multiple tangible computer-readable storage media ofone or more types) encoding one or more instructions. The tangiblecomputer-readable storage medium also can be non-transitory in nature.

The computer-readable storage medium can be any storage medium that canbe read, written, or otherwise accessed by a general purpose or specialpurpose computing device, including any processing electronics and/orprocessing circuitry capable of executing instructions. For example,without limitation, the computer-readable medium can include anyvolatile semiconductor memory, such as RAM, DRAM, SRAM, T-RAM, Z-RAM,and TTRAM. The computer-readable medium also can include anynon-volatile semiconductor memory, such as ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM,NVRAM, flash, nvSRAM, FeRAM, FeTRAM, MRAM, PRAM, CBRAM, SONOS, RRAM,NRAM, racetrack memory, FJG, and Millipede memory.

Further, the computer-readable storage medium can include anynon-semiconductor memory, such as optical disk storage, magnetic diskstorage, magnetic tape, other magnetic storage devices, or any othermedium capable of storing one or more instructions. In one or moreimplementations, the tangible computer-readable storage medium can bedirectly coupled to a computing device, while in other implementations,the tangible computer-readable storage medium can be indirectly coupledto a computing device, e.g., via one or more wired connections, one ormore wireless connections, or any combination thereof.

Instructions can be directly executable or can be used to developexecutable instructions. For example, instructions can be realized asexecutable or non-executable machine code or as instructions in ahigh-level language that can be compiled to produce executable ornon-executable machine code. Further, instructions also can be realizedas or can include data. Computer-executable instructions also can beorganized in any format, including routines, subroutines, programs, datastructures, objects, modules, applications, applets, functions, etc. Asrecognized by those of skill in the art, details including, but notlimited to, the number, structure, sequence, and organization ofinstructions can vary significantly without varying the underlyinglogic, function, processing, and output.

While the above discussion primarily refers to microprocessor ormulti-core processors that execute software, one or more implementationsare performed by one or more integrated circuits, such as ASICs orFPGAs. In one or more implementations, such integrated circuits executeinstructions that are stored on the circuit itself.

Those of skill in the art would appreciate that the various illustrativeblocks, modules, elements, components, methods, and algorithms describedherein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, orcombinations of both. To illustrate this interchangeability of hardwareand software, various illustrative blocks, modules, elements,components, methods, and algorithms have been described above generallyin terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality isimplemented as hardware or software depends upon the particularapplication and design constraints imposed on the overall system.Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varyingways for each particular application. Various components and blocks maybe arranged differently (e.g., arranged in a different order, orpartitioned in a different way) all without departing from the scope ofthe subject technology.

It is understood that any specific order or hierarchy of blocks in theprocesses disclosed is an illustration of example approaches. Based upondesign preferences, it is understood that the specific order orhierarchy of blocks in the processes may be rearranged, or that allillustrated blocks be performed. Any of the blocks may be performedsimultaneously. In one or more implementations, multitasking andparallel processing may be advantageous. Moreover, the separation ofvarious system components in the implementations described above shouldnot be understood as requiring such separation in all implementations,and it should be understood that the described program components andsystems can generally be integrated together in a single softwareproduct or packaged into multiple software products.

As used in this specification and any claims of this application, theterms “base station”, “receiver”, “computer”, “server”, “processor”, and“memory” all refer to electronic or other technological devices. Theseterms exclude people or groups of people. For the purposes of thespecification, the terms “display” or “displaying” means displaying onan electronic device.

As used herein, the phrase “at least one of” preceding a series ofitems, with the term “and” or “or” to separate any of the items,modifies the list as a whole, rather than each member of the list (i.e.,each item). The phrase “at least one of” does not require selection ofat least one of each item listed; rather, the phrase allows a meaningthat includes at least one of any one of the items, and/or at least oneof any combination of the items, and/or at least one of each of theitems. By way of example, the phrases “at least one of A, B, and C” or“at least one of A, B, or C” each refer to only A, only B, or only C;any combination of A, B, and C; and/or at least one of each of A, B, andC.

The predicate words “configured to”, “operable to”, and “programmed to”do not imply any particular tangible or intangible modification of asubject, but, rather, are intended to be used interchangeably. In one ormore implementations, a processor configured to monitor and control anoperation or a component may also mean the processor being programmed tomonitor and control the operation or the processor being operable tomonitor and control the operation. Likewise, a processor configured toexecute code can be construed as a processor programmed to execute codeor operable to execute code.

Phrases such as an aspect, the aspect, another aspect, some aspects, oneor more aspects, an implementation, the implementation, anotherimplementation, some implementations, one or more implementations, anembodiment, the embodiment, another embodiment, some implementations,one or more implementations, a configuration, the configuration, anotherconfiguration, some configurations, one or more configurations, thesubject technology, the disclosure, the present disclosure, othervariations thereof and alike are for convenience and do not imply that adisclosure relating to such phrase(s) is essential to the subjecttechnology or that such disclosure applies to all configurations of thesubject technology. A disclosure relating to such phrase(s) may apply toall configurations, or one or more configurations. A disclosure relatingto such phrase(s) may provide one or more examples. A phrase such as anaspect or some aspects may refer to one or more aspects and vice versa,and this applies similarly to other foregoing phrases.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example,instance, or illustration”. Any embodiment described herein as“exemplary” or as an “example” is not necessarily to be construed aspreferred or advantageous over other implementations. Furthermore, tothe extent that the term “include”, “have”, or the like is used in thedescription or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in amanner similar to the term “comprise” as “comprise” is interpreted whenemployed as a transitional word in a claim.

All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the variousaspects described throughout this disclosure that are known or latercome to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expresslyincorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed bythe claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to bededicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure isexplicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is to be construedunder the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 72, sixth paragraph, unless theelement is expressly recited using the phrase “means for” or, in thecase of a method claim, the element is recited using the phrase “stepfor”.

The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in theart to practice the various aspects described herein. Variousmodifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilledin the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied toother aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to theaspects shown herein, but are to be accorded the full scope consistentwith the language claims, wherein reference to an element in thesingular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specificallyso stated, but rather “one or more”. Unless specifically statedotherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. Pronouns in themasculine (e.g., his) include the feminine and neuter gender (e.g., herand its) and vice versa. Headings and subheadings, if any, are used forconvenience only and do not limit the subject disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device, comprising: at least one processorconfigured to: maintain a database on the device, the database storingevent data items derived from user data items that correspond to useractivity on the device or that correspond to user activity on a seconddevice of a user, the event data items being separate from the user dataitems; periodically transmit, based on a time interval to a server forpropagation to the second device of the user, first insertion recordscorresponding to first new event data items generated at the device, thetime interval of the transmitting being based at least in part on afrequency at which the first new event data items are generated; inresponse to detecting a deletion of one of the user data items: delete,from the database, one of the event data items corresponding to thedeleted one of the user data items; and transmit, to the server forpropagation to the second device of the user, a first deletion recordfor causing deletion of the one of the event data items at the seconddevice, the first deletion record being transmitted along with any ofthe first insertion records awaiting transmission, wherein thetransmitting is performed immediately in response to detecting thedeletion and the first deletion record is transmitted on an aperiodicbasis with respect to the time interval.
 2. The device of claim 1,wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive,from the server, second insertion records corresponding to second newevent data items generated at the second device; and add, via the secondinsertion records, the second new event data items generated at thesecond device to the database.
 3. The device of claim 2, wherein the atleast one processor is further configured to: receive, from the server,a second deletion record corresponding to one of the second new eventdata items generated at the second device; and delete, via the seconddeletion record, the one of the second new event data items from thedatabase.
 4. The device of claim 3, wherein the first insertion records,the first deletion record, the second insertion records, and the seconddeletion record are discarded at the server, and still maintained on thedevice and the second device, once a time-to-live threshold has beenexceeded for the respective records.
 5. The device of claim 3, whereinthe first insertion records each includes different first sequencenumbers generated from a first set of sequence numbers, the firstdeletion record includes a second sequence number generated from asecond set of sequence numbers, the second insertion records eachincludes different third sequence numbers generated from a third set ofsequence numbers, and the second deletion record includes a fourthsequence number generated from a fourth set of sequence numbers.
 6. Thedevice of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is furtherconfigured to: detect, based on the fourth sequence number included inthe second deletion record, that the second deletion record isout-of-sequence; transmit, to the server, a request for a set of recordscomprising the first insertion records, the first deletion record, thesecond insertion records, and the second deletion record; receive, fromthe server, the first insertion records, the first deletion record, thesecond insertion records, the second deletion record, and at least athird deletion record in response to the request; and delete and rebuildthe database based on the received first insertion records, firstdeletion record, second insertion records, second deletion record, andthe at least the third deletion record.
 7. The device of claim 1,wherein each event data item comprises: source data comprising dataidentifying the user, data identifying the device or the second device,and data identifying the respective user data item from which the eventdata item was derived; and event data comprising a start time and an endtime for the user activity corresponding to the respective user dataitem.
 8. The device of claim 7, wherein the event data further comprisesat least one of: structured metadata identifying at least one of anapplication launch reason, a device location, or a device motion state,or unstructured metadata comprising user-customizable values.
 9. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein each event data item corresponds to at leastone of a topic that is mapped to an online encyclopedia entry, or to anentity that represents a predefined noun, place or thing.
 10. The deviceof claim 1, wherein the device and the second device are associated witha shared user account.
 11. A method, comprising: maintaining a databaseon a first device of a user, the database storing event data itemsderived from user data items that correspond to user activity on thefirst device of the user or that correspond to user activity on a seconddevice of the user the event data items being separate from the userdata items; periodically transmitting, based on a time interval to aserver for propagation to the second device of the user, first insertionrecords corresponding to first new event data items generated at thefirst device of the user, the time interval of the transmitting beingbased at least in part on a frequency at which the first new event dataitems are generated; in response to detecting a deletion of one of theuser data items: deleting, from the database, one of the event dataitems corresponding to the deleted one of the user data items; andtransmitting, to the server for propagation to the second device of theuser, a first deletion record for causing deletion of the one of theevent data items at the second device, wherein the transmitting isperformed immediately in response to detecting the deletion and thefirst deletion record is transmitted on an aperiodic basis with respectto the time interval.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:receiving, from the server, second insertion records corresponding tosecond new event data items generated at the second device; and adding,via the second insertion records, the second new event data itemsgenerated at the second device to the database.
 13. The method of claim12, further comprising: receiving, from the server, a second deletionrecord corresponding to one of the second new event data items generatedat the second device; and deleting, via the second deletion record, theone of the second new event data items from the database.
 14. The methodof claim 13, wherein the first insertion records, the first deletionrecord, the second insertion records, and the second deletion record arediscarded at the server once a time-to-live threshold has been exceededfor the respective records.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein thefirst insertion records each includes different first sequence numbersgenerated from a first set of sequence numbers, the first deletionrecord includes a second sequence number generated from a second set ofsequence numbers, the second insertion records each includes differentthird sequence numbers generated from a third set of sequence numbers,and the second deletion record includes a fourth sequence numbergenerated from a fourth set of sequence numbers.
 16. The method of claim15, further comprising: detecting, based on the fourth sequence numberincluded in the second deletion record, that the second deletion recordis out-of-sequence; transmitting, to the server, a request for a set ofrecords comprising the first insertion records, the first deletionrecord, the second insertion records, and the second deletion record;receiving, from the server, the first insertion records, the firstdeletion record, the second insertion records, the second deletionrecord, and at least a third deletion record in response to the request;and deleting and rebuilding the database based on the received firstinsertion records, first deletion record, second insertion records,second deletion record, and the at least the third deletion record. 17.A computer program product comprising code stored in a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium, the code comprising: code to maintaina database on the device, the database storing event data items derivedfrom user data items that correspond to user activity on the device orthat correspond to user activity on a second device of a user, the eventdata items being separate from the user data items; code to periodicallytransmit, based on a time interval to a server for propagation to thesecond device of the user, first insertion records corresponding tofirst new event data items generated at the device, the time interval ofthe transmitting being based at least in part on a frequency at whichthe first new event data items are generated; code to in response todetecting a deletion of one of the user data items: delete, from thedatabase, one of the event data items corresponding to the deleted oneof the user data items, and transmit, to the server for propagation tothe second device of the user, a first deletion record for causingdeletion of the one of the event data items at the second device, thefirst deletion record being transmitted along with any of the firstinsertion records awaiting transmission, wherein the transmitting isperformed immediately in response to detecting the deletion and thefirst deletion record is transmitted on an aperiodic basis with respectto the time interval.
 18. The computer program product of claim 17,wherein the code further comprises: code to receive, from the server,second insertion records corresponding to second new event data itemsgenerated at the second device; and code to add, via the secondinsertion records, the second new event data items generated at thesecond device to the database.
 19. The computer program product of claim18, wherein the code further comprises: code to receive, from theserver, a second deletion record corresponding to one of the second newevent data items generated at the second device; and code to delete, viathe second deletion record, the one of the second new event data itemsfrom the database.
 20. The computer program product of claim 19, whereinthe first insertion records, the first deletion record, the secondinsertion records, and the second deletion record are discarded at theserver, and still maintained on the device and the second device, once atime-to-live threshold has been exceeded for the respective records.